Elderly Deaths

SCIENCE AND MEDICINE - SCOPE

September 20, 1992

Despite growing fears of dying in a comatose state hooked up to life-support machines, more than half of elderly people die peacefully in their sleep, a study by the National Institute on Aging has found. Interviews of relatives of nearly 4,000 people over 65 who died in Fairfield County, Conn., showed that more than half of the deceased were in good to excellent health a year before death, about 60 percent got around on their own, and 80 percent were mentally alert, said Dwight Brock, a physician at the institute. The vast majority had either been free of pain or had their pain under control, and 90 percent of them saw family members in the last three days of life. In the last 90 days of life, the average person spent 37 days in medical care facilities. ''Most of the elderly do not die isolated, alone and in great pain,'' Brock said. ''More often than not, they die with their family nearby, aware of surroundings and relatively free of pain.''